Mobile Orders Helped Fuel Black Friday Sales Surge: IBM

Shoppers depart with their bags at Toys R Us on Black Friday in New York November 26, 2010. Photo: REUTERS

U.S. consumers home on Thanksgiving used mobile platforms and especially their iPads from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to generate a 17.4 percent boost in online sales, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) reported.

The surge rose to 20.7 percent on Nov. 23, so-called Black Friday for retailers, IBM said, based on a survey of cloud analytics.

Nearly a quarter of consumers used a mobile device to reach retailer sites, compared with only 14 percent a year ago, with users of iPads contributing to about 10 percent of all online shopping.

Next up was the iPhone, with nearly 9 percent of cyber orders, and phones using the Android OS from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), with about 5.5 percent, IBM said.

IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., estimated 58 percent of all Black Friday shoppers used smartphones to find a bargain, compared with 41 percent who used tablets.

Moreover, the cyber tools helped shoppers to save money. The average order fell nearly 5 percent, to $181.22, while the average number of items ordered was 5.6, about 12 percent below the 2011 figure.

“This year's holiday shopper was hungry for great deals,” said Jay Henderson, strategy director, IBM smarter commerce. “The big winners were chief marketing officers who used technology to not only deliver the right customer experiences but did so at the right touchpoint.”